A fisherman was walking along the Danube River, near Oberelchingen, in southern Germany, when his sonar detected something unusual at the bottom of the river, about five meters deep. The equipment, normally used to distinguish fish schools, plants, and underwater shapes, showed what appeared to be a hood, a roof, and window openings of a vehicle. Upon confirming the presence of a submerged car, the man, identified as Bence Szabo, called the police.
The rescue operation mobilized a large emergency team. Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics went to the scene, but the complexity of the removal also required the participation of the Technisches Hilfswerk, the German technical assistance agency, which brought a large crane to lift the vehicle from the water.
More than 50 people worked for seven hours in the vehicle rescue operation. The car was removed from the river in the form of a block of mud and metal, the result of decades underwater. The operation represented a considerable effort of human and material resources to recover the automobile from the bottom of the Danube.
